Various television stations are reporting that a medical helicopter crashed outside of Brownsville, Tennessee. The NTSB has sent a team to the scene.
Apparently, the company operating the helicopter was Memphis Medical Center Air Ambulance Service, Inc., also known as Hospital Wing.
The helicopter was a Eurocopter Astar AS350B3 model.
I am pleased (no, overjoyed) to report that the new edition of my tort book has gone to the printer.
The book is now in its third edition, with a title change to more accurately reflect what the book contains. Day on Torts: Leading Cases in Tennessee Tort Law contains 79 chapters and 345 sections highlighting the most prominent tort case on 345 different subjects. There are citations to another several thousand cases. The original volume of the book just 66 chapters and 233 sections. The page count has increased from 437 pages to 667 pages.
The new edition has abandoned the effort to update the rules of civil procedure, evidence and relevant tort law statutes. This will result in a substantial price drop for the book.
As I mentioned in two previous posts, Shannon Ragland of the Tennessee Jury Verdict Reporter has graciously agreed to permit me to share some of the information he has gathered concerning jury trials in Tennessee.
This multi-part series will discuss some of the data contained in Shannon’s 359-page report. You can buy the report yourself for $175.00. It is well worth the money. Click here to buy the report. The same link will permit you to order Shannon’s monthly newsletter.
Today we look at medical malpractice verdicts. There were 32 trials in Tennessee in 2009. Plaintiffs won 9 of those cases, and the defense won 23. Seven of those cases were tried in Nashville and five were tried in Memphis.
Effective July 1, 2010 a party to a litigation may serve papers in Adobe PDF format via electronic mail to the attorney’s email address. The process is a little more cumbersome than it need be, but it is a step-forward toward increasing the efficiency of law practice and reducing cost.
The rule change is a modification to Rule 5.02 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure. View this rule change (and the other changes to the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure) here.
Note: the amendments proposed to Rules 3, 4 and 26 have not been adopted.
The Georgia Supreme Court has struck down a cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases, declaring the cap to be a violation of the right to trial by jury. The case is Atlanta Oculoplastic Surgery, P.C. v. Nestlehutt, NO. SO9A1432 (Ga. March 22, 2010). Read the opinion here.
The Court ruled that by "requiring a court to reduce a noneconomic damages award determined by a jury that exceeds the statutory limit, OCGA Sec. 51-13-1 clearly nullifies the jury’s findings of fact regarding damages and thereby undermines the jury’s basic function."
As I mentioned in last Tuesday’s post, Shannon Ragland of the Tennessee Jury Verdict Reporter has graciously agreed to permit me to share some of the information he has gathered concerning jury trials in Tennessee.
This multi-part series will discuss some of the data contained in Shannon’s 359-page report. You can buy the report yourself for $175.00. It is well worth the money. Click here to buy the report. The same link will permit you to order Shannon’s monthly newsletter.
Today we look at wrongful death cases. Total trials in Tennessee in 2009? Just 14. Only three verdicts were returned for the plaintiff and eleven came in for the defense. Seven of those trials were in the medical malpractice area, and six of those were won by the defense. The average verdict in the three successful cases was a little over $2.4 million.
I have had several lawyers ask me to post our most recent work in the area of filing motions to strike insufficient affirmative defenses in comparative fault cases.
I have been filing these motions since 1992. A defendant has an obligation to follow Rule 8.03 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure and set forth the facts upon which a affirmative defense, including the defense of comparative fault, is based. The failure to do so should result in the defense being stricken from the answer.
A defendant has a right to have a reasonable amount of time to investigate the case and amend their answer to assert a comparative default defense of a party or non-party. This is discussed in my article called "Party Planning for Tort Lawyers" in the November 2009 edition of the Tennessee Bar Journal.
Shannon Ragland of the Tennessee Jury Verdict Reporter has graciously agreed to permit me to share some of the information he has gathered concerning jury trials in Tennessee.
It is fair to say that Shannon has the most comprehensive collection of jury verdict information in the state. Indeed, in my mind it exceeds that offered by the annual reports published by the Administrative Office of the Courts. Why do I say this? First, Shannon gets paid to collect data and report it accurately. Second, the clerks report data to the AOC, and not every clerk is going to apply the same criteria when he or she completes the report. Thus, there is increased likelihood that data will not be consistently reported and this, of course, impacts the results.
This multi-part series will discuss some of the data contained in Shannon’s 359-page report. You can buy the report yourself for $175.00. It is well worth the money. Click here to buy the report.
Tim Edwards of Memphis has kindly shared a protective order in a products liability case.
The following comes to us from an article written by Chelsey Ledue, Associate Editor of Healthcare Finance News:
Fewer medical malpractice payments were made on behalf of doctors in 2009 than any year on record, according to the National Practitioner Data Bank.
This finding contradicts claims that medical malpractice litigation is to blame for rising healthcare costs and that changing the liability system to the detriment of patients will not curb costs.
